Furthermore, how should exile be
an obstacle to the cultivation of the things that are one's own and to the
acquisition of virtue, when no one was ever hindered from the knowledge and
practice of what is needful because of exile?
May it not even be true that
exile contributes to that end, since it furnishes men leisure and a greater
opportunity for learning the good and practicing it than formerly, in that they
are not forced by what only seems to be their fatherland into performing
political duties, and they are not annoyed by their kinsmen nor by men who only
seem to be their friends, who are skillful in fettering them and dragging them
away from the pursuit of better things?
Sometimes a change of situation is by choice, and
sometimes it is by necessity. In either case, it helps me to ask myself what it
is that I may gain from it, and what it is that I may lose from it. An answer
to this question is only possible by discerning what makes for the fullest
human gains, and what other things I might be willing to lose for their sake.
I can imagine Socrates telling me to build up the
goods of my soul, the very core of who I am, and to put the goods of my body, the
conditions under which I must act, in the service of the soul. As argued in Plato’s
Meno, this is because all the qualities that
are external to my character, such as wealth, or strength, or pleasure, are
never good in themselves, but only become good when joined to the wisdom and virtue that should
be internal to me.
What is relative must be measured by what is absolute.
What is conditional depends upon what is unconditional. What is incomplete follows
from what is complete.
The sublime beauty of Stoicism is that it gets
right to the heart of human nature, and that it reveals a surprising truth: if
I only so choose, I am completely invincible. Everything else can come and go,
but my own dignity can always remain intact.
Move me from one place to another, and that does
not need to change how I choose to live. Take away all of my trinkets and my toys,
and that does not need to determine my choices. Isolate me from all of my
friends, and that does not mean I cannot continue to offer concern and
kindness.
The worst I have to lose is my comfort and
convenience. The most I can gain is the happiness of having lived with
conviction, with integrity, with love. It’s hardly a dilemma when it is put in
such terms. It only requires a proper sense of priorities.
A new set of surroundings can well be seen as a blessing.
It can remove me from the burden of what has become too familiar, and it can
free from the many unnecessary obligations I have somehow convinced myself to
be necessary. A new place won’t change me, but a new place can help me to better
change myself.
Absence can reveal my true friends, and absence can
reveal my real duties. It can become a means to rid myself of the chains of
stale habits.
Imagine what people would do with the need to pack
a few things in a small bag and leave everything else behind.
Some would fret about what to eat, or where to
sleep, or the status of their careers.
Others might set off on that road with a sense of
relief, that however few days they may have left, they now have another chance
to make something decent of themselves, even if it means that all of the old
values are replaced by completely new ones.
I don’t need to be here, or
to do that, or to rub shoulders with them. I need to grow up, to grow beyond the
pleasantries and platitudes. Let me, for once, worry about who I am, not where
I am.
Written in 11/2016
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